Asked if she would still campaign for the president, Tennant said, “I’m not sure I’d be,” before adding, “And he’s not on the ballot.”

Pressed on the issue, she said, “This is about me and Shelly Moore Capito and about West Virginia, because I don’t answer to the president.”

Tennant has distanced herself from Obama, who is not popular in West Virginia. She has particularly played up her disagreement with the president on coal, launching an ad this week, where she flips a switch turning lights off on the White House to protest its coal policies.

Tennant, West Virginia’s Secretary of State, is not unlike Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), who also is trying his best to make himself into the more “anti-Obama” candidate than his GOP opponent – WV state Sen. Evan Jenkins. Rahall was quoted earlier this year as saying, “I probably have supported George Bush more than I have Barack Obama.”

Tennant has made waves this week by releasing an ad in which she symbolically “shuts off power” to the White House, in an effort to show her support for the coal industry.